I see little of real merit in this (Ivory tower dweller) unrealistic academic article.
The only attitude adjustment needed, is those of the employer group!
And the Author completely overlooks research, which demonstrates home-care costs roughly half that required for special care retirement homes!
Granny flats are just not a good idea, and makes the oldie far too dependent/reliant on the whim and caprice of relatives, who may, in far too many cases, only see the older rallie as a financial benefit/unpaid childcare service etc.
I was forced to retire early and thanks to a generous public service retirement package, wasn't left too badly off.
However, not everyone is so blessed, and many living below the poverty line, [around forty percent of the population,] can never, not in their wildest dreams, (blame the victim) ever be able to afford super.
The article smacks of a very sly, if seriously inadequate rebuttal of yesterdays preventative care, which ought to be required reading for every public servant/pollie!
One notes euthanasia is included.
Which is arguably only available for discussion, due to a failure to roll out, far less profitable preventative care!
And the fact there is far less profit in that vastly less costly model, probably explains why it is just not primary public policy!
Rhrosty.

Thanks RHROSTY for your comment. Everyone is entitled to an opinion. For what it is worth my comments and suggestions are feedback from real world Boomers who believe they are not getting a fair go and want their voice heard.
You have had Super since 1980's and live comfortable but many have none so they suffer some anxious moments trying to plan a future.
Five million Boomers can not be accommodated by the Aged Care system so we will need family support at home in whatever form.
My local GP who works in the Aged Care industry says that they are spending more in the last year of people's lives than they have in the rest of their life so do your figures here and tell me we wont need family support at home.
Maybe you should read the BONZA Report (see BONZA web site) sent to all government departments and political parties last week and understand that these are not my ideas but the ideas of a good cross section of Boomer society ( gathered over 17 years) not just one person who has come from an ivory tower and is doing well it seems by your own admission.

Hi Rhosty,

The poverty line is defined as 60 % of the median weekly wage: an income below that level is 'poverty'. But that's really quite useless, since by definition, roughly 40 % are bound to be on incomes below that line.

There must be absolute and objective measures of poverty, not relative measures like this one. Missing meals, having trouble every week paying the rent, borrowing and never paying back and so avoiding relatives and former friends, forgoing medical and especially dental treatment, never thinking about a restaurant meal (but fish and chips, maybe) and only dreaming of going on an overseas tour.

The wonderful Aaron Wildavsky once did a study of poverty in Israel: he found that some people on very low incomes could still manage to save, very slowly; while others on fair incomes were always in financial trouble. People vary in how they use income.

Thirty-odd years ago, I did an income study of an Aboriginal community where I had lived some years before. I expected to find poverty - yards LOOKED poverty-stricken - but found that the average (mean) weekly income there was equal to the median Australian weekly income. That is, that incomes there were at the Australian average. It was incredibly traumatic. I went over and over the figures, but there they were. And rents there were at bout 20 % of the Australian average.

So we should be sometimes sceptical about 'poverty'.

Joe

My God, Rhrrrosty and BigMouth are here as well sharing their narrow, adolescent world view with all and sundry.

Surely, the two of them must have Doctorates in heaps of disciplines. How else could they pontificate on every subject as they do?

And now they are authorities on aging as well. Are they really old or are they frauds and pretenders?

I'm seventy-five and proud of it. How old are they and what qualifications do they have?

Don't be modest, boys. Tell us about all your achievements (if you have any).

Hi David,

I'm 72 next week. My wife and I made some of the first Aboriginal flags back in 1972, perhaps a hundred of them, and send them all over the place. If the first flag you saw had a very wonky central disc, it was one of ours.

I have two Masters' and three grad dips. I have put in about five years typing up about ten thousand pages of old documents concerning Aboriginal affairs here in South Australia, all on my web-site: www.firstsources.info and still going.

So what have you done lately ?

Joe Lane

Why am I so suspicious of people who claim that for some supposedly unique reason, they need particular assistance from government?

Young people need a job. Middle-aged people need retraining as their earlier skills become redundant. And old people need, it would seem from this article, both of the above plus a pill to end it all, should they so wish. None of us carries these as an entitlement, they are just wishes.

>>Maybe you should read the BONZA Report (see BONZA web site) sent to all government departments and political parties last week

The reality is that none of this is an issue that we ask the government to solve. Unless, of course, you are of the view that governments only respond to special pleading and constant whining. (Which might, of course, be absolutely accurate, but still doesn't make it right)

Actually, I think this says it all:

>>...my comments and suggestions are feedback from real world Boomers who believe they are not getting a fair go<<

Complaining life is unfair is of course their prerogative. But the rest of us boomers believe we have actually had much more than just "a fair go".

We understand perfectly well that we have been exceptionally lucky to have been born a boomer, and thank our stars that we lived a far more privileged life than our parents, and one blessed with many more opportunities than will be enjoyed by our children.